


An Afternoon of Firsts

by via_ostiense



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Godric's Hollow RPG
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-03-23
Updated: 2003-03-23
Packaged: 2017-10-15 17:32:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/163178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/via_ostiense/pseuds/via_ostiense
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on an event in the dead RPG godricshollow (LJ). IIRC, Hannah Abbot threw (or accidentally lost - the motivation is known only to the character mods for Hannah and Darien) a Hufflepuff/Slytherin match and there may have been flirting between the two characters at another point.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Afternoon of Firsts

Hannah was in love; that was the only way she could explain it. How else to account for her abysmal performance in the day’s Quidditch match? One glance at Darien and she’d bollixed up the Hufflepuff team’s careful strategy and rendered their hours of practice worthless. His brown hair had gleamed in the bright sunlight when he’d nodded at her, and she’d dropped the Quaffle in mid-play. Susan had been unable to block Pucey, and so that fumble had been ten points to Slytherin. And then ten more, and another ten as Hannah failed to make her interceptions and tried to pass to the Hufflepuff Beaters when she managed to gain possession of the big red ball at all. Final score had been three hundred to forty, in Slytherin’s favour.

In the changing rooms, Hufflepuff was too loyal, too meek, to chastise Hannah, but there was a frostiness evident in the air. She ignored it, or maybe didn’t notice it, thinking instead how smoothly Darien had sped through the air, eyes focused on the Quaffle’s dancing movements as it passed from player to player. Or the way his green robes had seemed ready to rip off while he flew, as if the wind were equally desirous of slipping along the firm contours of his body as she was. He never fastened his robes securely enough and at least every other game the clasp broke under the pressure of the wind and the heavy weight of the fabric. He claimed it made him feel liberated and that it was exhilarating to fly open to the elements. Like a hummingbird, he was light and precise in flight, but with the ferocity of a raptor on the hunt.

Hannah gave a start—she’d been standing alone in the room for several minutes, and her teammates had departed. Darien. That’s what she’d been thinking about, Darien with his gleaming teeth and the rakish scar across his left cheek and his confident, preening attitude. Susan’s face and Ernie’s, too, drifted to mind and accused her of deliberately throwing the match, and she quailed momentarily before standing firm.

“It’s not like that,” Hannah insisted. “It’s not!”

 _Oh, really?_  her teammates’ voices were so vivid in her ears that Hannah glanced about nervously, half-expecting the captain and her fellow Chaser to have returned.  _Do tell, then, why the house jock didn't manage a simple pass during the entire match?_  

Their voices echoing in her head, she licked her lips before answering. “I—I didn’t do it on purpose.” Hardly a stirring defense.

 _Convince us_. The voices weren’t quite mocking, the bonds of friendship and her teammates’ amiable personalities prevented that, but it was impossible to miss the accusing tone.

“I—I—just—I saw Da-Montague,” she stammered, never stopping to question why she was confessing to an unseen jury.

 _Montague? Darien Montague?_

“Yes, him, the Slytherin Chaser,” she babbled. “And I saw him and suddenly and I just dropped the Quaffle, it was as if my fingers fell off of it and I didn’t mean to, it just happened, Sus, Ernie.” The sentence came out in a rush, with the force of water released from a dam. Or perhaps love just realised and glorying in all its liberty.

 _Why him? Anns, he’s a Slytherin_. Now the voices were loaded with surprise and shock. Shock that Hannah had fallen for the dubious charms of a Slytherin or someone outside of Hufflepuff, she wasn’t sure which.

“Yes, I know, but he’s so brilliant and when he smiles it’s like the sun’s come out after an eclipse. It’s not like the day was gloomy, but the sun just makes it so much brighter and so much better, see?” Hannah had finished changing and was walking back to the castle while she continued to talk. Absorbed in untangling her attraction to Darien and explaining herself to the mental manifestations of her friends, she didn’t notice that there was anyone nearby until she walked into him.

Hannah looked up, automatically excusing herself, and gasped to see those hazel eyes fixed on her again. This was three times in one day, she thought dizzily, which was a surfeit of glances because most days she didn’t see the sixth year at all, except across two tables at meals. She stumbled backwards, only to be caught by a firm grip on her arm, and Darien was touching her and that was a first.

“Who’s so brilliant, Abbott? Fancy sharing, or is that a secret for you and the invisible person you were talking to?” and he was grinning at her, mischievous and open and that was another first and she was suddenly glad at the ultrastrength makeup and hair charms she did every morning, even on Quidditch days.

Caught off guard, Hannah replied honestly and said, “You.” No time for prevarication and she couldn’t have lied anyway, for she thought love was pure and clean and never, ever filled with deceit.

Darien was surprised, she saw it flicker through his marvelous eyes like a cloud skipping across the sun. She tried to tug away, but he was still holding onto her and now he was drawing her closer and suddenly there were lips on her mouth. She squeaked in surprise, and would’ve fallen over in shock if he hadn’t wrapped his free arm around her waist. Being pressed up against his warm body was quite nice and the feeling of warm heat suffused her limbs while the scent of fresh air and spice filled her nose. He pulled away while she was breathless and disoriented, and somehow led her to a tree and pulled her onto his lap, down in the shade. Giddy and dazed, she smiled up at him before leaning in for another kiss, and the rest of the afternoon melted away in a haze of caresses and learning exactly what he felt like under the concealing robes.


End file.
